Hi there Ecologgers, Does anyone know of any means to automate the measurement of throughfall and stemflow measurements in trees.
As anyone who has tried it knows, you need lots of throughfall collectors to minimize variability, and collecting the throughfall that falls into those collectors is labour-intensive - as my hapless student found last year. A simple solution woudl be to connect your throughfall funnels to tipping bucket rain gauges, but these are quite expensive - at least 300 bucks. Last year I was measuring 15 trees - so that would have been 4500 bucks just for rain gauges. I have thought of buying the tipping buckets, installing them in PVC pipes and connecting them to cheap data loggers, but I cannot find a supplier. I have also thoght about using some sort of water meter, but again, I do not know where to find a cheap and reliable source. Any perspectives or tips the assembled wisdom can offer would be most appreciated. All the Best, Andy Park (University of winnipeg)
